UL students win social entrepreneurship prize

A group of students from University of Limerick have won the Citi Ireland and Enactus Ireland hosted Pathways to Progress showcase. Pathways to Progress is a youth social entrepreneurship development programme, that provides students with the resources to empower young people from disadvantaged urban areas around Ireland. The showcase took place in Citi’s head offices, on North Wall Quay, where teams from all over Ireland presented their final projects to a panel of judges after months of mentorship, training and guidance.

UL’s students Catherine Hallinan and Lucinda-Jayne Hamilton presented their project ‘SparkED’ alongside students from Cork Institute of Technology, Dublin City University, Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Maynooth University, Trinity College and University of Dublin at the presentation.

Catherine and Lucinda-Jayne were named overall winners at the event and received the top prize of €3,000 worth of seed funding for the project. ‘SparkED’ is a programme to empower transition year students who are not given enough leadership skills or opportunities to be a role model for future generations. Dún Laoghaire’s IADT came second, with their ‘Mind Your Media’ project, a workshop for disadvantaged students that educates them on online safety regarding employment prospects receiving €1,000 in seed funding. TCD were presented with the ‘Innovation Award’ for their ‘KeepAppy’ project, an app that educates people on mental health wellness, received €600 in seed funding. All three projects received funding because they were projects that worked with young people aged 16 to 24 years, that adhered to the Enactus criteria of empowering people to improve their livelihood in an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable way.

The seed funding and mentorship provided to the teams allows the projects to build and expand on the work done to date.

Enactus is a global, non-profit organization that is changing the world through highly dedicated student teams on more than 1,700 university campuses in 36 countries.

Enactus offers these students opportunities like the ‘Pathways to Progress’ programme, to develop leadership, teamwork, and communication skills through learning, practicing and teaching the principles of free enterprise, thereby improving the standard of living for millions in the process.